Valla
has worked on a variety of projects involving molecular genetic analyses
of bacteria. As an employee at a Technical University it has been a
strategic goal in the research to cover certain basic problems relevant
to applied biotechnology, but also to devote some of the time to more
applied projects. Many problems in applied biotechnology require a multidisiplinary
approach, and for this reason a tight and lasting coopearation has been
established with the local SINTEF Group of Industrial Biotechnology.
This group has access to an advanced fermentation unit which allows
testing of genetically engineerd organisms under industrially relevant
conditions. The collaboration on this has been crucial in most of the
applied activities, and also has a broad potential for studies of more
basic problems in microbial cell physiology. In many genetic engineering
projects involving organisms other than those intensively studied in
molecular biology it is a problem that adequate biological tools for
recombinant DNA research are not available. This basic problem has been
addressed over many years by studying replication and copy number control
and by developing vectors based on the broad-host-range plasmid RK2
replicon. The vectors we have developed relatively recently are now
widely in use in many groups around the world. The second major area
of research is bacterial biopolymers, originally cellulose produced
by Acetobacter xylinum, now alginate in Azotobacter vinelandii
and Pseudomonas species. For more details on these activities and a
smaller project on lactic acid bacteria the readers are referred to
the specific project descriptions. An activity on streptomyces antibiotics
was also initiated some years ago in collaboration with Dr. Trond Ellingsen
at SINTEF Industrial Biotechnology. This research will from this year
(2001) be headed by my collaborator Dr. Sergey Zotchev, who recently
obtained a staff position at our Department. The future plans for my
group will be to remain at the same basic strategy described here, but
to move more in the direction of metabolic engineering and whole genome
research. We strongly believe that such approaches can open new and
exciting possibilities for most of our ongoing research activities.